


Hallucinogenics

by TowardTheStars



Series: Bright Side [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst, Brotherly Angst, Canon Compliant, College, Don't take drugs from Remus, Drama, F/M, Fluff, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, James is an unexpected father of a teenager, M/M, Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter), POV Multiple, Regulus wants to go home, Romance, Severus can't believe he's surrounded by idiots, crossed universes, mild chaos
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-23
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:21:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25455361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TowardTheStars/pseuds/TowardTheStars
Summary: Regulus Black knows two things with complete truth.1) Never, ever listen to Remus Lupin.2) If you happen to wake up twenty years in the future with people who can do magic, do your very best not to give them a reason to harvest your organs.Everything else, he's trying to figure out.
Relationships: Bellatrix Black Lestrange/Voldemort, Harry Potter & James Potter, Harry Potter & Lily Evans Potter, James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Lily Evans Potter & Severus Snape, Regulus Black & Kreacher, Regulus Black & Severus Snape, Regulus Black & Sirius Black, Regulus Black/Hermione Granger, Remus Lupin/Nymphadora Tonks, Sirius Black & James Potter, Sirius Black & Remus Lupin, Sirius Black/Severus Snape
Series: Bright Side [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1831753
Comments: 53
Kudos: 130





	1. Past the Limit

**Author's Note:**

> I strongly recommend that you read Love Stuck before reading this work (it's the first work in this series). We're crossing universes here, but one such universe is a College AU. Therefore, the relationships/characters are different. Canon, however, remains the same. 
> 
> If you don't have the time or energy (no worries), I've written a quick summary in the endnotes. If you're feeling particularly bold, you're more than welcome to just go for it.
> 
> Please enjoy!

Regulus woke with a groan. He gingerly brought a hand to his head and winced. A fading headache pulsed behind his temples, and his mouth tasted sour like someone had coated acid gunk on his teeth.

He remained in the blissful oblivion of darkness for a moment longer as he tried to piece together last night. This would be the last time he ever listened to Remus Lupin for as long as he lived.

Oh, sure, Moony, why don’t we all take some strange pill you just randomly pulled out of your pocket? Oh, sure, why don’t we decide our first night on vacation had to be spent getting as fucked up as humanly possible in the clubs of London? It’s not like Lily and Severus had planned twenty-five tours in the next three days. It’s not like you would actually want to preserve any of the three brain cells they shared. 

Through a murky brownness, Regulus tried to patch together what exactly happened to leave him feeling like he had been gracefully steamrolled. The flight. Yes. And then the hotel – Sirius, Severus, James, Lily, Remus, all of them. They had grabbed food at a small pub, giddy at the posh British accents, and the general sense of being somewhere _else._

They had gone back to the hotel, most of them resting and recovering from their long flight. Severus and Sirius had taken a nap together, James and Lily took a brief stroll to a small park, and Regulus had logged in to check with Kreacher, who had suggested some sights in London.

Remus, driven by the ever-present chaotic forces of the world, had slipped out, returned with the pills, insisted that they just _had_ to celebrate. It was London, he had exclaimed. They had graduated, and life was good. And no self-respecting twenty-two-year-olds would not check out the London nightlife.

Regulus had quickly learned that of anyone to fear in their group it was Remus Lupin. Sure, Severus could get scary if he wanted, and Lily could hate something fierce. But if anyone could convince anyone to do something completely insane, it was Remus Lupin.

And with friends as stupid as Sirius and James, Remus possessed a power far more frightening than anything Regulus had experienced.

Severus and Lily had protested, of course. They had wanted to rise at seven, set out on their historical tour, and be asleep at six. Repeat for seven days, and they had their dream vacation.

Regulus was more ambivalent. If he could find someone to smoke with, he would take it easy and then slip back with either Severus or Lily when they got tired.

It was a shame that Lily and Severus had to fall in love with the two of the biggest idiots Regulus had ever met because he blinked and it was one o’clock and everyone was drunk – even Severus, who was usually so careful with alcohol. They were drunk, the club pulsed with energy, and Remus had extended his hand with those six round pills, and it was show over. Finale. Curtains closed.

Until, of course, Regulus groggily forced open his eyes, praying with all his might that one of them had maintained enough sense to navigate their group back to the hostel. Of course, he could have just as easily been kidnapped by some Eastern European gang who planned to sell him on the black market. He sincerely hoped not; it would cause such a fuss and Sirius would never be able to live it down.

Yet…shit. This wasn’t the hostel. Their hostel didn’t have dark ceilings. It had forced cheeriness and the miscalculation of using a too bright white. The alarm forced a measure of life back into Regulus, and he quickly sat up, head turning with the motion.

For one nauseating section, his stomach roiled. He tilted his head to prepare to throw up his fish and chips, but he managed to force it down, swallowing rapidly. Once it passed, he scanned the room.

The relief at seeing Lily’s red hair sprawled on the pillow beside him nearly made him cry. Unless the Eastern European mob planned to make her into some perverse sex slave, and then it probably wasn’t ideal to find himself no longer alone.

Still, the fact that he didn’t have to deal with the morning situation by himself lifted some weight from his shoulders. He couldn’t have gotten luckier either; of all people, he would have wanted Lily for whatever they would have to face.

Sirius would have been a death sentence in itself. Regulus would have given up all hope next to James.

Lily had also started to stir, brow furrowing as she grappled with her own headache. She slit her eyes and stared at surprise at Regulus. 

“Reg?” she croaked.

“Lil,” Regulus whispered back, grimacing at the gunk on his teeth. He needed a shower and a toothbrush as soon as he figured out his organs weren’t about to be harvested.

“What?” she mumbled, bringing her hands up to rub at her eyes. “What…happened?”

“We...we went out last night, do you remember anything?” Regulus whispered, gaze searching Lily’s face. She opened her eyes again and frowned.

“No, not – there was…and then Remus had…oh shit.”

Regulus nodded in sympathy as she shut her eyes and groaned.

“I knew we shouldn’t have, god, Sev and I had that tour – Sev,” she gasped. She sat up and quickly keeled over as her body protested. It passed in a moment, and then she stared at Regulus with panic. “Sev?”

Regulus shook his head. “I don’t know. I just woke up too,” Regulus responded, feeling sick at the thought of their friends.

“Where are we?” Lily whispered, fear streaking her voice. Regulus looked around the room again, but it was dark and he couldn’t make much out. It looked old and relatively unused. In fact, it looked still firmly placed in the seventeenth century with a lumbering hunk of a fireplace.

“I don’t…I don’t know,” Regulus forced out, wetting his lips as panic curled its first tendrils into his side.

Lily closed her eyes and seemed to steady herself. “Do you have your phone?” she asked quietly, eyes still shut. Regulus groped at his jean pockets.

“No,” he replied just as quietly. “I don’t.”

“Me either,” Lily said. “We need to get out of here, alright? Grab something to…a weapon, okay Reg? In case…then we’ll find a phone and call the rest of them.”

Regulus nodded but realized Lily still had her eyes shut, so he uttered a yes. He glanced around the room, gaze settling on the fire poker.

He stood slowly, glancing nervously at the door. No one barged in, so Regulus crossed the space and grabbed the fire poker. Looking back, Lily had grabbed the candle holder on the desk. Who the hell still used candles?

They moved slowly, standing close to each other as they prepared to open the door. Regulus could hear the tremor of fear in Lily’s breathing, and his own heartrate pulsed with adrenaline. They just needed to get out and find everyone else. Then they would be okay.

Now, though, they needed to get out of this house. Regulus rested his hand on the doorknob, and with an affirming nod from Lily, gradually eased it open.

It opened to an empty hallway. There were no windows, so he couldn’t see anything past the murky darkness of the hallway. He found no light switch by the door.

Lily pushed him forward, and they began to move down the hallway. They moved carefully, and Regulus gripped the fire poker with clenched fists. Adrenaline surged within him as he prepared for an attack at any moment.

Light came from the end of the hallway, and while both felt incredibly reluctant to move towards anything that indicated another person, the other hallway led to a dead-end. Still, no one had seemed alerted to their presence, and if they were a mob, Regulus figured they couldn’t be a very good one. A good one would have at least tied them up so that they couldn’t sneak down the hallway with a fire poker and a metal candlestick in their hands.

That would be embarrassing, he thought. To be sold into slavery or have their organs harvested by a not even respectable mob. He was Black, dammit, he deserved better.

His lips twitched into a smile, and Lily paused to stare at him as if he had lost it. She rolled her green eyes when Regulus just shrugged.

They reached the patch of light and stepped onto the top of a staircase. Regulus peered down on it in the hope of seeing an overly muscled Albanian gangster, but he had no such luck. No, there was just a portrait that was…moving?

Regulus blinked quickly; whatever Remus had given them must not have worn out just yet. The portrait frowned, and Regulus averted his eyes because he didn’t need to lose himself into some weird trip. He didn’t think Lily would appreciate it.

Lily also frowned but said nothing. The candlestick trembled in her hands, but her eyes glistened fiercely. Oh, thank god, Regulus thought. Lily would never let them harvest their organs without a fight. Regulus thought he would probably just ask them to do it nicely.

They started their descent, Regulus keeping his gaze firmly away from that portrait. They passed another empty hallway, but a quick glance from Lily told him they needed to get to as low as they could go so they could break out. A four-floor fall wouldn’t serve any of their interests unless it happened to alert the neighbors.

Still, no one, even though every breath of Regulus’s felt on edge. He fixed his grip around the fire poker, ready to bludger someone’s head in. Another flight and then -.

Regulus didn’t know if he had been kidnapped by a group of teenagers or if those teenagers had also irresponsibly taken a pill from a friend and ended up in this weird house. He wondered if his hacking skills would give him enough merit to join their gang. He didn’t know how well he would fit into the London gangster scene, but he figured he could just as well try. It beat having his lungs sent to Hong Kong and his heart to Montreal.

Lily had frozen beside him, and Regulus was again so grateful to be with her. If anyone could take over a teenager gang and enforce their own rule, it would be Lily. Severus would have been nice too, but they could manage.

One of the teenagers seemed to realize that someone else now stood behind them. She slowly rose from where they all awkwardly crouched around the banister and turned to face them.

They all stared at each in a split second of shock. First, Regulus had expected the girl to be either A) malnourished after years of abuse or B) laden with intimidating tattoos befit of a savage killer.

She wasn’t that. She was…pretty. Really pretty. Untamed, frizzy, curly brown hair, which was alright because she had soft brown eyes and nice features, and Regulus felt his heart skip a beat. She also wore casual clothes – a blue shirt and jeans. Her gaze flickered over Regulus in surprise, but she completely froze when she saw Lily.

Lily watched her, tensing beside Regulus. Regulus wondered if Lily was about to clobber her with the candlestick, but really hoped not because she did have a nice face.

The girl’s shock alerted the others, and they all turned in confusion. They all completely froze when they Regulus and Lily, except for two identical twins with violently red-hair that grabbed thin sticks of wood. Regulus weighed the fire poker in his hand and figured he could take their thin sticks of wood any day.

He glanced over them, taken aback by the fact that every red-head in London seemed to have come en masse to this strange house. What if this was some fetish driven den of red-heads? Lily certainly fit the bill. Regulus knew he would kill anyone who tried to hurt her. If he didn’t, Severus and James would make him wish he did, and while he had James didn’t frighten him, Severus certainly did.

Weighing the risks of attacking this group of red-haired teenagers to defend Lily’s honor, he nearly didn’t notice the one who was notably not red-headed. In fact, he had black hair just like James – well, to think of it, it _was_ James or James had an identical twin he just never happened to mention.

Expect, shit, that kid had Lily’s eyes.

Lily seemed to notice too because she stared agape at the teenager. “James?” she stuttered out, disbelief lacing her voice. The kid stared back in complete shock, mouth working fruitlessly.

It was the pretty brown-haired girl who finally spoke. “L-Lily?” she said slowly, raising a hand in a placating gesture. Lily trembled beside Regulus.

“Y-yeah?” she managed, grip shifting on the candlestick. James – not James – started to move forward, but the red-haired boy not a spitting image of the others, stuck his hand out to stop him.

“Ginny, go get Mum,” one of the twins muttered from the corner of his mouth. The red-haired girl – they had to be siblings – shot the twin a nasty look but complied, slipping down the stairs. Regulus wondered if this ‘Mum’ lady was their mob boss. He didn’t feel all that comfortable planning to attack someone motherly.

The brown-haired girl shifted her gaze towards him, and unlike Lily, she didn’t seem to recognize him. Her brow furrowed as if trying to figure something out. “Si-Sirius?” she asked, sounding unsure.

The fact that they apparently knew his brother did nothing to reassure his fears. He braced beside Lily who had also startled at the name, gaze flickering quickly towards Regulus.

“You-you know Sirius?” Lily asked hesitatingly. Regulus didn’t respond but watched the brown-haired girl closely.

The girl nodded after a moment. “Yeah, he’s-,” she started but seeming unsure, stopped again.

Lily took a step forward before Regulus could stop her. “Then you know Severus, right?” Her voice contained a desperate measure of hope, and Regulus couldn’t help but feel also. If they had Severus, they would be alright. The three of them could handle whatever the world decided to throw at them with this little cult of red-heads.

The name Severus seemed so deeply shocking to the group of them that they all stared at Lily as if none of them could have believed she would have even known how to string those sounds together. James 2.0 seemed especially shocked, mouth hanging open. He pushed against the boy’s hand, but the boy didn’t relent.

“Severus Snape?” the brown-haired girl asked as if from a deep shock, and Regulus was grateful that she seemed to have enough sense about her to keep a measure of cool to this situation. James 2.0 looked ready to throw up, and the twins held their sticks of wood in their hands as if posed for an attack.

Lily nodded quickly, relief fracturing across her face. “Yes, do you know where he is?”

“I-I mean,” the girl stuttered, “Do you know where you are?”

Before either of them could respond with a half-hearted London, the red-haired girl was back with an equally red-haired woman. And here Regulus was thinking ginger had a genetic rarity.

At least, they seemed to have spoken literally when they referred to their ‘Mum’. She didn’t look like a vicious mob boss, but Regulus kept the fire poker firmly raised before him. Looks can deceive, and as it was now, he had no idea what the hell was happening.

The Mom startled when she saw them, mouth opening in an o. “Oh,” she started, “Oh, I, Lily, dear?”

Lily continued to tremble beside Regulus, and Regulus could hardly imagine how distressing it would be for a random group of strangers – one that conveniently shared her eyes with her boyfriend – all seemed familiar with her. All he had gotten was Sirius, which alone had alarmed him enough. He had to do something, so he stepped forward to shield her.

“Okay,” he started slowly. “So, we, um, don’t really know what’s going on? Or how all you all kind of know us? We don’t want any trouble, just if you maybe call Severus? Or Sirius too if that would be easiest? And then we’ll, you know, get out of your hair. Even like,” he turned to James 2.0 who still looked about ready to throw up, “if, um, James Potter? If he’s your brother or something, I don’t know, but if we could talk to him?”

The Mom lady seemed the quickest to process the words, and the red-haired girl’s gaze flickered between the two of them. Lily continued to tremble beside him, and Regulus really wished one of them would pull out a phone and call any of them. He would even take Remus at this point.

At this point, James 2.0 seemed to push past his nausea, even though he still remained white as a ghost. “Mum?” he asked, clearly directed at Lily. Regulus nearly choked, and Lily stilled completely beside him. A quick glance showed her staring at James 2.0 with shocked confusion and distress. 

“I-I,” she started to stutter out, but the Mom interrupted.

“Harry, dear,” she said, “Could you go and get Sirius and Severus? You too, Ron.”

Oh, thank god, Regulus thought. If they all here then maybe this wasn’t some perverse nightmare. Maybe Sirius and Severus just made some friends? Or James knew James 2.0 and they all went to his house? And Regulus and Lily were too out of their minds to realize. It didn’t really make any sense, but Regulus clung to it desperately. Lily had moved closer beside him, and they both watched with frightened eyes as James 2.0 moved as if through a fog, the Ron kid right behind them. The disappeared downstairs and Regulus was suddenly glad James 2.0 – Harry – was gone. He disturbed him.

At this point, one of the twins, eyes never leaving Regulus and Lily, spoke. “Don’t reckon this could be a trick?”

“A trick?” the Mom replied, looking closely at the two of them. Regulus’s skin crawled at their gazes, and he hefted the fire poker in his hand in a way he hoped looked menacingly. “George, we don’t know that.”

“But-,” George started to protest, but a quick shake of his Mom’s head shut him up. Her gaze softened, and she gestured towards the two of them.

“None of us are going to hurt you, dears. In fact, it might be better…would the two of you want to move to the kitchen? It’s just downstairs. We can get you some tea and talk it all out? I think that might be best.”

“You’re not harvesting my organs,” Regulus said with a note of hysteria, the severity of it starting to hit him. The Mom shook her head and smiled kindly.

“Have nothing I could do with them, dear.”

It was Lily who made the decision as she lowered the candlestick and nodded. Regulus exchanged a look with her, and she was right – this wasn’t some mob or kidnapping. This was something far more frightening and required them to not just dash out as quickly as they could. They needed to trust these people, as least for the time being. And if they knew Severus and Sirius, then they probably did not intend to harm the two of them.

Regulus lowered the fire poker after another moment. He kept in his hand as he didn’t want to feel completely defenseless, and he noticed Lily did the same. Harry and Ron still hadn’t returned, and Severus and Sirius had yet to meet them.

Eyeing the others warily, the two of them followed the Mom downstairs. It was a strange house – ancient-feeling and dark, and Regulus couldn’t shake the feeling that the portraits were moving. What drug had Remus given him?

The kitchen contained a dominating wooden table and a stove and fridge. There looked to be no electricity anywhere, everything lit either naturally or with candles. Maybe James 2.0 had joined some strange cult that eschewed technology and that’s why James never talked about him? Regulus shuddered at the thought; technology was his lifeblood.

The Mum gestured for them two sit, but they both remained standing, backing away from the door so they could keep sight of everyone. Again, Regulus was so glad to be with Lily. Sirius, Remus, and James would be completely hopeless.

The two girls and twins had followed them, and while their Mom started to make tea in the kitchen, – Regulus couldn’t see her very well so he refused to drink anything she prepared – they stood awkwardly in front of them.

No one seemed quite sure to say, so Regulus being Regulus tried to make a joke.

“So you really don’t want my organs?” he asked. The teenagers stared at him confused, and Lily kicked him in the shin.

“Reg,” she hissed, “don’t give them ideas.”

Regulus was about to respond when the kitchen door opened. First came, James 2.0 – Regulus knew his name was Harry but he still couldn’t see him as anything other than mini-James – who still looked far too pale and nauseated. His gaze fixed immediately on Lily, who avoided his gaze.

Then, Ron behind, and then -.

Two things happened simultaneously.

First, Regulus’s brain broke.

Secondly, Lily’s brain did the same.

It wasn’t even worth pretending anymore. He burst out in laughter, and Lily started to giggle nervously beside him.

“Holy fuck,” he cursed, “What the hell did Moony give us?” He looked up at the ceiling, pretending to look outside of the insane trip he had found himself in. “Remus, dude, if you can hear me now, what the fuck? If I’m convulsing on the floor right now, dude, I swear to god-.”

Then his brother – who was _not_ his brother because his brother was not a middle-aged man who looked like he had seen hell – stepped forward. “Reg-Regulus?” he asked, and Regulus had to pretend not to see him because he really couldn’t stand something like that.

“Moony, dude. Or actually Sev, cause you’re the only one that slightly responsible,” Regulus continued, speaking to the ceiling and knowing they probably all lay shit-face in the hostel, “Get me to a hospital, okay? Lily too? Because uh this trip is no longer fun.”

Severus – no, no, not even close this time because Severus was also not a middle-aged man who looked like he had also seen hell and lived through a good deal of it – had startled at his nickname. His gaze remained fixed on Lily and held something that for some reason made Regulus want to cry.

Lily continued to giggle faintly beside him. “Oh, Reg,” she forced out between the giggles, “Oh, Reg, where are we? What’s happening?” Then to everyone’s horror, her giggles turned to tears, and she pressed her hand to her mouth to smother her cries. Severus – not Severus – stepped forward, hands hanging helplessly by his side. Everyone stared in shock as he took another few steps across his room. He had paled considerably and stared at Lily with grief and pain.

“L-Lily,” he said in that deep, oh so familiar voice of his. If Regulus shut his eyes, it could be him – but no that wasn’t possible. It couldn’t be.

Lily let out a small sob at her name, and she peered at him through her tears. “Sev,” she cried, “Sev, what’s happening? Where – where are we?”

Her distress seemed to worsen the pain in the man’s eyes, and he raised her hands as if to comfort her. He looked nearly desperate to do so, her tears causing him agony.

“It’s alright, Lily,” Severus comforted, and suddenly Regulus wanted to listen to him also. Even if it wasn’t Severus – it couldn’t be – he had the same voice and that same way of speaking, even if now he had a British accent. And he was an adult which surely meant he knew what was happening. “Lily, what do you last remember?” he asked in a slow, gentle voice. Lily hiccupped through a sob.

“We…we had just gotten to London,” she said through her tears. Severus’s presence seemed to steady her as he brushed them from her eyes. Her voice gained strength, and she fixed her gaze on Severus. The man seemed taken aback as if he hadn’t expected or prepared himself for the intensity of her gaze. No one else spoke.

“Who?”

Lily rubbed her face and took a deep breath. “Um, well, you. Me. Regulus. Sirius, of course. James. And Remus.” She nodded as if to confirm it for herself.

“How did you get here?” Severus asked, black eyes fixed on green. Lily didn’t look away.

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “Regulus and I just woke up on the room on the top floor. I don’t know…”

The older Sirius had made a noise at the mention of the room, and Lily shifted her gaze to look at him.

“That was Reg’s room,” Sirius said. Regulus knew he should probably look at him, but he couldn’t manage just yet. He could, however, deny.

“It’s not,” he fixed. “I don’t know what this place is. We never lived – I mean, my brother and I never…” he trailed off weakly, swallowing hard. Everyone looked at him, and he glanced awkwardly downward. Luckily, Severus redirected the focus back to him and Lily.

“You expected us....”

“To be _you_ ,” Lily pressed her lips together and her chin wobbled with the effort to stop crying. “Not, I don’t know, Sev, you’re so…old. You’re not – you’re supposed to be twenty-two. And Sirius…Sirius too, oh, Sev.” She met Severus’s gaze once again, and something in it caused her to stumble forward.

Severus clearly didn’t know what to expect, but then Lily stood in front of him, cheeks streaked with tears and chin trembling. She hiccupped again, and Regulus thought he could just barely catch panic in the man’s eyes. It was so hard to read him though; he appeared much more closed off than his younger counterpart.

“I’m, I’m sorry,” Lily mumbled, rubbing at a now running nose. “I was trying to…but I’m just, you, oh what happened to you Sev?”

Severus shut his eyes at her words, yet his face remained stiff. He pulled in air shallowly, and everyone watched the exchange, no one deigning to speak.

“You, it appears you’ve been misplaced in time,” Severus explained, forcing out each syllable. “But it’ll be…you’ll be alright, Lily. Now, we should call the Headmaster, and he’ll-.”

Lily cut him off by suddenly throwing herself in his arms. Regulus watched with wide eyes as Lily buried her face into his shoulder and wrapped her arms around his nearly frighteningly thin frame. Severus tensed, and then very carefully placed his hands safely on her middle back. He had shut his eyes, so Regulus could barely read him, but he had enough sense to see that Severus looked stricken.

He held Lily as if she was the most precious thing in the world. While Regulus sometimes forgot the depth of the relationship in the face of Severus’s and Sirius’s fierier one or James’s and Lily’s fondness, there was no denying that perhaps the strongest love in their group existed between these two. That their childhood friendship mattered so deeply to one another that they had died themselves irreparably together.

Regulus knew Severus would do anything for Lily. And Lily protected Severus with an unquestionable fierceness. Their attitudes towards each other had diffracted to their other relationships; Severus would never allow any harm to come to James, and Lily would protect his troublesome brother. Regulus, himself, fell somewhere among them, and it made him safe.

Regulus spared a glance around the room and noted that everyone appeared so completely shell-shocked by the action that it was almost laughable. James 2.0 had collapsed into a chair, and that pretty brown-haired girl had covered her mouth with her hand. The only person who didn’t appear surprised was Sirius.

Regulus didn’t want to look at him because then he would have to think of what had robbed his brother of his life. He didn’t want to know that. Especially if it was their future.

Lily finally pulled back, and while Regulus couldn’t really see their faces, he did catch sight of that sweet smile of Lily’s and the way Severus stared at her as if nothing could possibly matter in the world. Thank god Severus was gay, Regulus thought, or else James would have some stiff competition.

“Lily,” Severus gasped. Lily tilted her head and gently stroked a strand of hair out of his face. He seemed to tremble at her touch and quickly closed his eyes again.

“Oh Sev,” Lily murmured. “I’m sorry, I don’t- I was so worried about you. When I woke up with only Reg – I’m glad you’re alright, even if you’re…”

At this point, James 2.0 seemed to work past his shock and nausea to speak. “What-what the hell?”

Severus pressed his lips together in the hint of a frown, and Lily turned to face the teenager. She rubbed at her nose, grimacing at the snot.

“I’m sorry,” she began, still standing close to Severus. “I don’t know who – you’re related to James? He’s never mentioned…but you said.” She looked a little faint, and Regulus couldn’t blame her.

The teenager- Harry that was his name – stared at her with her eyes. “Yeah,” he said hesitantly, “Yeah, you’re my mum.”

“Oh, alright,” Lily said faintly. Regulus had to commend her; if he had just found out he had a teenage son, he would either dropped in a dead faint or started screaming. He wondered how James would handle the fact that he had apparently fathered a son. He would probably have heart palpitations. “You’re Harry?” she asked, still looking faint.

Harry nodded, and he stared at Lily with a hope that made Regulus’s throat ache.

“James is going to freak,” Regulus muttered, perfectly imagining James’s frantic panic at the reality of fatherhood. The brown-haired girl turned to him and then back to Lily, a question forming on her lips.

“Are you two not together?”

Lily blanched. “No, I mean, we are. Just we’re not planning on having a child…I’m not planning on having a child, so it’s a bit of a shock. And the fact that everyone I know is about twenty years older. And that we have no idea what’s happening, really.” Regulus agreed, and the brown-haired girl glanced at him. 

“You should sit, Lily,” Severus interjected softly, “and you too, Reg. Can one of you call the Headmaster?”

“Snape,” Harry demanded, and Regulus nearly winced at his tone. He said the name as if he despised it, which didn’t seem right if Lily was indeed his mother.

Severus evaluated Harry with cold eyes, which also didn’t seem right if Lily was indeed the mother. He seemed to debate something and then began to speak, the words almost bitter. “Lily and I had a friendship at Hogwarts. It is inconsequential.”

Harry looked about to protest the fact that their friendship was anything but inconsequential when Lily swatted at Severus’s arm.

“Rude, Sev,” she teased. “I at least deserve trivial.”

“Yes, of course,” he quickly corrected. Lily smiled again. Regulus almost wished he had been the one to start crying – her breakdown had gotten out all the insidious emotions that curled in his stomach and made him want to scream. She seemed much better, green eyes already glinting with a renewed strength.

“But he’s-” Harry protested, glaring at Severus. Lily frowned as she glanced between the two of them. The room grew tense.

“We can discuss this later, Potter,” Severus ordered in a clipped, cold tone. Harry glared at him, looking about to protest when Sirius moved behind him and rested a hand on his shoulder. Severus’s gaze remained cold as he shifted it towards Sirius, and Regulus wondered what had happened between the two of them. They seemed so hopelessly in love with each other when Regulus had last left them twenty years ago.

“They were friends, Harry,” Sirius explained in that all too familiar voice of his. Harry’s eyes widened, and he turned to Sirius.

“But no one-.”

“They stopped being friends,” Sirius finished. “Because as you can imagine, he was an evil greasy git.”

Lily looked at Sirius in shock, Severus worked his jaw in suppressed anger, and someone one else spoke from the kitchen door.

“Sirius,” another painfully familiar voice warned. Regulus spun to face him, and he was right – it was Remus, but an older Remus and one who looked like had suffered multiple dog attacks and never made quite enough money to move past Goodwill. He looked tired, just like the rest of him, as if life had soundly whupped him.

However, it was still the Remus who had proffered those pills, and Regulus couldn’t help but surge forward, fire poker still firmly in his grasp. Remus would tell him the exact chemical composition of those pills, and Regulus would call on every contact he had on the dark web to figure it what it did and how to reverse it, and if Remus couldn’t do it….well, he did have a fire poker.

“Remus, what the hell did you give us?” Regulus demanded to the older man’s concern.

“I don’t-,” Remus replied, seeming surprised by Regulus’s reaction. “Give you something?”

Lily nodded. “You gave us a pill, Moony. To celebrate, you know, being in London and all that.”

“A pill?” Remus asked again, and Regulus wondered if he was playing dumb. He wanted to give him the benefit of doubt – it would have been twenty years if Regulus gauged it correctly. Still, if that had been the night two of his friends had disappeared, he should have remembered every moment of it. “Like medicine?”

Regulus stared blankly at Remus hoping he was joking. Lily frowned again. “No,” she said, “Like a drug. Like one where we don’t really know what happened? Just that we woke up here and twenty years have passed. That kind of pill, Remus.”

Everyone now stared at Remus as if expecting answers, yet he seemed completely baffled by the entire situation.

“I’m not sure,” he paused and turned to the rest of them. “Is there any kind of magic that could do that?”

Regulus wondered what drug had broken Remus’s brain. He, himself, had always stuck with weed, certain in its familiarity. Remus was the one who pushed it every so often, and at one point, one of them must have melted his prefrontal cortex. Who the hell spoke of magic?

Yet no one seemed to find it strange at the mention of magic, and Regulus wondered if he had missed something.

Regulus was about to question him further when the kitchen door behind Remus opened suddenly. He heard a clamor of voices and then –

Then shit really hit the fan.


	2. Tripping on Hallucinogenics

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to juniper_lee for beta-ing!

Severus Snape was frankly not having a good time. His first day in another country, and he had to spend it waking up in an unfamiliar room with a pounding headache and Sirius Black snoring loudly beside him.

He had planned, of course, for seven days of pure joy. Elated exploration of the Anglo-Saxon culture with Lily at his side as they traversed Westminster Alley and ventured out to Oxford. Sightseeing in its greatest form.

He had not planned for Remus to return to their hostel and galvanize them to go out to a bar. He had not planned for his stupid boyfriend to look at him with his annoying puppy dog eyes, so that Severus had no choice but to go out with them, and then to, against his better judgment, drink beyond his limits. He, most of all had not planned to find himself plastered in a club and popping a pill at one in the morning. 

And now he had woken up in a room that was decidedly not their hostel and atrocious in its own right. Someone with awful, pubescent taste had decorated it with pin-up girls, a fanatical obsession of lions, and the garish color combination of red and gold. It made his eyes hurt and his headache worsen. Glancing around, he couldn’t help but think of that poster in Sirius’s house of a red and gold lion that he found egregious and irritating.

He noticed, with some relief, that Sirius lay beside him. He had thrown out one arm across Severus’s waist and snored with an open mouth. He wore the same clothes from the night before – a maroon button-down and black jeans – and, his hair remained pulled lopsidedly into a bun. He looked alright, despite the fact that they had found themselves in a strange room after a drug-infused night. Severus hoped for Sirius’s sake that he had answers.

He pushed aside Sirius’s arm and prepared to shake him awake when he heard a groan from the floor. He peered over the edge and saw a James Potter who looked far worse for wear. His hair, always unkempt to begin with, looked positively wild, and his glasses slanted across his face. He lay sprawled out on the floor, and Severus felt grateful for his spot on the bed.

He slowly raised a hand to his head and groaned again. “Fuck,” he muttered, grimacing at the taste in his mouth. He opened his eyes and squinted at the harsh sunlight streaming in from the window. It looked to be afternoon, and Severus silently cursed them all. 

“Severus?” James ground out, focusing his gaze on Severus’s face. “What the-? Where are we?”

Severus frowned. “I was hoping you could tell me. I don’t remember anything past one.”

“Oh, umm.” James thought for a moment, eyes sliding shut. “Me either. Just that Moony had…did we all take them?” Severus’s silence answered him, and he groaned again. “God, this is the last time I ever listen to Moony.”

“What’d you say about me?” the aforementioned Moony called out, startling Severus and James. Severus turned to the origin of the voice and saw him slumped in an armchair. He also looked like he had tried and failed to outrun a tractor, but his eyes possessed a bit more awareness than the other two. He scanned the room, gaze settling on a wall containing a few pictures.

“Fuck, Moony, what the hell did you give us?” James remained on the floor and pressed the back of his hand against his eyes. Severus arched an eyebrow at him expectantly.

“It was just…supposed to be ecstasy. Yo, do you see this?” he asked, rising from the chair and walking over to the wall. “It looks like us?” Severus looked in the direction of the photos but couldn’t make out any details. James still hadn’t moved. “It really is…there’s even…do you think this could be some show? Or a prank or something?”

Severus was about to respond sarcastically that no, surely some lunatic had kidnapped them when Sirius startled himself awake beside him.

“Sev!” he called out and then scrambled to grab hold of him. Severus grabbed his wrists to still him and leaned down to press a gentle kiss on Sirius’s lips. He winced at the morning breath, but the contact calmed Sirius. “Sev,” Sirius whispered, relaxing as his heart rate slowed back down. “Sorry, I thought, couldn’t remember….”

Severus shushed him and then kissed him again, the action now so intimately familiar. Sirius quieted and stilled. He glanced around the room and frowned. “Sev, are we…?”

“How much do you remember of last night?” Severus asked directly. Sirius’s frown deepened.

“Shit, did you miss your tour?”

“Yes, but that’s the least of our concerns for the time being.”

“Yeah, but it was the one about Sherlock, right? I know how much you and Lily wanted-.”

At the name Lily, Severus felt his heart drop to his stomach. James noticed the same because he pulled himself upward and looked around the room.

“Um, where’s Lily?” James asked, looking slightly panicked. “Did anyone see her?”

“Yeah,” Sirius answered, rubbing at his eyes. “Um, yeah, I saw her with Reg heading off to the bar. And then I don’t…Moony, bro, what did you give us?”

“Guys, it’s us.” Remus had still yet to move from the wall, but he now held a photo in his hand. “And it looks like…am I still tripping?”

“Are you?” James’s voice grew pitched as he verged on the edge of hysteria. Sirius shot a worryingly glance at him, but Severus couldn’t blame him. The fact that Lily and Regulus were missing caused a sledgehammer of fear to crush his chest. 

“No, I mean, look.” Remus stuck out his hand with the photo. James grudgingly took it. He held it up to his face, rearranging his glasses. His expression turned to disbelief. 

“No, that’s not, no,” James began to mumble, shaking his head as if to deny the photo. Remus stared at him, expression more sober than usual. Severus reached out to snatch the photo from James’s hand and looked down at it. Sirius peered over his shoulder, and he gasped as Severus froze. 

The photo displayed four teenagers, who, unless the so-called Marauders had identical matching twins, were them. Well, not Severus as he was nowhere to be found, but James, Remus, Sirius, and then Pettigrew. They looked younger, Severus estimated late teens, and they wore strange boarding school clothes that almost looked like robes. They all looked happy as they smiled and waved at the camera, and that was the problem.

The photo was moving. The four teenage boys laughed in repetition, grinning all too familiar grins. Severus had never seen anything like it, especially on material that had to be paper.

Sirius clearly had never seen anything like it either because he started to tremble beside Severus. “That’s us, but we’re not…we’ve never worn…?”

“Remus, if your drug broke my mind, I’m going to kill you,” James threatened, edging much more firmly into hysteria. Remus frowned and shook his head.

“It’s…nothing does this, James. Well, unless you’re in a coma and fantasizing the whole thing, and then I can’t help you. But you don’t share hallucinations like this. You can’t share hallucinations like this unless maybe I told you. But I didn’t, James, which means-.”

“Which means what? That we’re all crazy now?”

“I don’t know. Do you feel crazy?”

“If you felt crazy, you wouldn’t be,” Severus interjected distractedly. “It’s when you don’t that you have to worry.” He ran a finger curiously over the photo, and he numbly recognized that the four boys jumped back and pulled out sticks of wood to point at him. They looked angry, photo-Sirius yelling something, and Severus handed it to the real-Sirius because it perturbed him. He only hoped Lily and Regulus were alright.

James gulped at his words and then leaned faintly against the wall. Fortunately, the pin-up girls remained still. Severus wasn’t sure he could handle it if they started smiling and walking around.

Sirius, his wonderful Sirius, stood from the bed and glanced around the room. He looked deep in thought.

“Do you know this place?” Severus asked, also standing up from the bed. His muscles protested, so he stretched quickly. He pushed the screaming part of his brain very far down and regarded Sirius calmly.

Sirius shook his head after a moment. “Feel like I should, you know? It kind of reminds me of what I wanted to do with my place at home. To piss off Mom. But Reggie talked me out of it.”

“But nothing-?”

“Besides that photo? No, I don’t know. Do you think we should go check out…?” Sirius trailed off, tilting his head towards the door. A heavy wooden door enclosed them in this room, but they had no idea what loomed outside. Severus swallowed against a small bubble of fear. He saw Lily and Regulus injured or held captive and monsters prowling outside of the doorway. His heart froze his chest. Yet, they couldn’t remain here. Not forever.

“We have to find Lily and Reg,” Severus stated for really nothing else mattered. The moving photo, the strange room, and the blanks in his memories – none of it mattered if they could find Lily and Regulus. He knew they all felt the same.

“I’m sorry, guys,” Remus apologized ashamed. It had been his idea, after all. Yet, Severus couldn’t blame him. They were adults. They were responsible for their own actions. Unless of course Lily and Regulus were hurt, in which case, Severus would string Remus up alive.

“It’s alright,” Sirius responded softly. “It’s not your fault, but hey, we’re getting our memorable vacation aren’t we? Kidnapped in a drugged haze in London. Not many get to say that.” He playfully jabbed his elbow into Severus’s side. “Beats your little tour, huh?”

Severus deigned to respond, but he did scowl and glare at Sirius. His scowl only relented when Sirius leaned over to kiss him.

“So should we…?” Remus asked, gesturing towards the door. James still looked on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and Severus would have reassured him if not for how terrified he felt over Lily’s absence. He envisioned himself in a  _ Taken _ scenario, desperate to save Lily, and hoped he wouldn’t have to emulate Liam Neeson.

Sirius nodded and approached the door. He pressed the side of his head against the door for a moment but didn’t hear anything. He gripped the doorknob and slowly pushed the door open.

He stepped outside, and they all followed. Severus tensed for an attack, but the hallway was deserted. They moved to the end of it and descended down the staircase. They encountered no one, the house seeming empty and strangely antique. Severus had yet to catch sight of anything that looked vaguely modern.

It was when they reached the final floor and prepared to head down the hallway that James finally broke.

Severus didn’t blame him. The inhuman heads arranged on placards and stuck onto the walls like trophies would have unsettled the best of them. He had never seen an animal that even vaguely resembled these humanoid heads. He wondered for the first time if they had stumbled onto some very elaborate practical joke or movie set. Or, perhaps as Remus so sagely suggested, he had fallen into a nightmarish coma that required him to spend all his time stuck with the bleeding Marauders. 

“What the fuck!” James shouted, wheeling away from the disembodied heads. Sirius had spun back too, automatically grabbing Severus to yank him away from the heads and closer to him. Remus stared agape, mind filtering through the shock. “What the fuck!”

Oh lord, Severus thought. It was a lunatic, it had to be. The psychopath would distort their faces to look like the ones on the wall, expose them to grotesque levels of pain, and then chop their heads off and stick them to his entryway. 

He knew one thing now. They either needed to get away, or they needed a weapon. Since they had all recoiled backward in horror, frantic to get away from the heads and unfortunately, the door, weapon it had to be.

Kitchen, he thought. Kitchens had knives.

He dragged Sirius to what he figured was the kitchen. Sirius stumbled but followed. James continued to curse in horror. Severus would have shushed him if he could speak past the fear cloying in his throat. Remus followed behind, eyes distant and face horrified.

They reached the kitchen door, and if Severus wasn’t so panicked and desperate to make sure he could protect Sirius, he would have paused before swinging it open. He would then have realized one could hear voices from the room, but again, details like that paled in comparison to the heads nailed to a wall.

He threw the door open. The other three stumbled into him as he came to a complete and utter stop, mind short-circuiting at the scene before him.

Not a lunatic, he thought distantly. Insanity. He had finally gone insane and had nothing to show for it.

xxxx

Lily had thought she could handle anything.

She had, truly, to this point.

She had fought off the bullies that had targeted Severus and tormented him for his clothes or stutter or the plethora of reasons Collins and his prepubescent gang cited. 

She had pulled Severus out of that dark place he spiraled into when his mother first got sick and his father lost his job and life seemed to be going in all the wrong directions.

She had endured all the snide comments from the pretty girls when she first started to date James and had fought for Sirius and Severus with everything she had.

She had even survived a freak snowstorm on the top of a New Zealand mountain, fighting through the cutting wind and freezing hail to make it to the other side.

She had withstood and grown strong. Life didn’t frighten her as she knew she could handle whatever it decided to throw at her.

But not this.

Not waking up in an unfamiliar house twenty years in the future and with no idea how she got here or what to do.

Even the idea of Harry wouldn’t be so bad, if not for  _ Severus _ . Her dearest friend, half of her heart, and one she had sworn to protect.

And she hadn’t. At least not this Severus with his tormented, hollow eyes and the frozen features of his face and the thin pressing of his lips that suggested  _ pain _ .

Both Sirius and he looked like they had walked miles through hell and only just emerged, disillusioned and distraught and unwilling to believe in the good of the world.

It broke her. And so she had thrown herself into his arms, doing away with all her concern and fear over Regulus’s and her situation. The fear of being away from all those she loved, of being in a strange place in a strange country and of knowing nothing.

No, it was Severus and her as it always had been and always will be.

She remained close to him even though they had all turned to the older Remus – his eyes also haunted and face bearing scars that suggested something terrible. She struggled to reconcile the bright, carefree Remus with this tired man.

And then she didn’t because there was Remus and – oh, Severus.

It was him, her Severus, the one with the still-bright eyes and the lips always ready to pull up into a smirk and his smooth, earnest face that betrayed his panic and concern. 

Lily didn’t stop to think – she threw herself forward and into his arms. He caught and held her. She could feel the frantic beat of his heart and his strangled gasps. He hugged her for all it was worth, and Lily knew she would be alright.

She pulled away after a moment because she thought she had also seen James out of the corner of her eye. Yes, it was him, her wonderful boyfriend looking a bit bedraggled absolutely terrified. The relief on his face when he saw her nearly made her start crying again. She disentangled herself from Severus’s arms and rushed to James, reaching up to wrap her arms around his neck and pull him into a kiss.

His lips felt the same, and even though he smelled sweaty and in desperate need of a shower, Lily couldn’t bring herself to let go. Severus was her rock, but James was her sun.

“Lily,” James finally gasped when he found the air. “Oh god, you’re alright. We were so worried, we didn’t know where you or Reg had gotten too.” He ran his hand through her hair, and Lily buried her face into his chest. 

It was her Sirius who spoke first– she would recognize the deep octaves of his voice anywhere. “Holy shit.”

Lily thought he did a decent job summing up the situation.

“Um, okay, wow,” Sirius said faintly. “Wow, um, are you…are you supposed to be me?” Lily knew he had recognized himself through the gauntness of his cheeks and haunted look around his eyes. She immensely pitied him. She couldn’t fathom facing a much older, battle-worn version of herself.

“Oh Merlin,” the older Sirius rasped. “You’re just…and James?” The way his voice broke at the name made her throat ache.

James shifted, and she grudgingly turned to her side so that she could remain pressed against him but see the rest of them. James reached out his hand to grab hold of hers. “Sirius?” he said, coughing to clear his throat, “Wow, okay. Blimey, mate. You got old. Cool, cool. Um, shit, wow.”

James then turned to the older Remus who also stared at him as if he could scarcely believe his eyes. His eyes spoke of grief, but Lily tried not to think too hard about it.

“Severus?” Sirius called out, the shock of seeing the older one profound. Her Severus had frozen beside him, eyes frighteningly blank. The doppelganger and Severus stared at each other and then looked away quickly, the older one scowling into the corner of the room. 

Her Severus sidled closer to Sirius, who stared at the scene with wide eyes. “And shit, James, who’s that?” He gestured towards Harry who looked positively green.

Lily took it as her turn to explain. She squeezed James’s hand reassuringly; this would be a shock for him. “That’s Harry,” she explained. “He’s, well, he’s our son.” Saying the words didn’t make it sound any less bizarre.

James choked, and Lily prepared to perform the Heimlich. “Son?” he gasped. “When did you get pregnant?”

She loved James for many reasons, but sometimes he wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. 

“Judging by his age, when I was six?” she said sarcastically and was rewarded by a snort from Severus.

“But – but,” James stuttered. “He’s…I mean he’s…” Somehow forcing himself past the shock that he had fathered a fifteen-year-old boy, he straightened himself out and raised his chin. He tried to impose the gravity of a father, and Lily loved him silly for it. Especially, since he looked like a fool when he stuck his hand out to shake Harry’s.

Of course, Harry stood too far away for it to do any good, so James awkwardly stumbled across the room, ignoring the cohort of red-heads. He tried to give the teenager a handshake worthy of a father to a son, but Harry seemed to have forgotten control of his limbs and James moved too awkwardly to make up for it. Lily appreciated the effort. She always knew he would make a good dad. 

Crossing the room also brought him closer to the older Sirius. After the handshake and before their son could throw up his lunch, he turned to him and appraised the older man. Lily, of course, saw it too. Sure, the older Severus and Sirius looked like hell and it broke her heart, but there still was something deeply sexual about them. As if the boys beside her had turned into  _ men _ . She tried to stifle her blush. 

James, on the other hand, had no shame in acknowledging that truth. He did so by turning to Severus and smiling. “Sev, mate, I always forget how hot Sirius is. Jesus, dude, you got yourself a good one.”

Sirius flipped him off, Severus rolled his eyes, Regulus scoffed, Remus snorted, and Lily giggled, but everyone else remained dead-silent.

Something had to break, and it did when perhaps the ugliest thing in the world emerged from the back of the kitchen and started to run towards Regulus.

Regulus, who had relaxed upon seeing Severus and his brother and watched the whole exchange silently, promptly screamed and swung the fire poker at the goblin-looking creature. He missed for the creature disappeared with a pop and then reemerged from thin air to wrap itself around Regulus’s leg.

“Master Regulus is back!” the thing croaked, sounding beyond elated. “Master Regulus! One worthy of the House of Black! Master!”

It was a wonder Lily could hear the creature’s jubilant shouts over Regulus’s piercing screams. He tried frantically to shake the thing from his leg. Both Sirius and Severus had run forward to try to assist him as he started to sob in terror as the creature didn’t relinquish its grip. 

Then the older Sirius called out, “Kreacher, let go!” and the ugly thing – Kreacher? – did, continuing to mutter praises of Master Regulus under his breath. Regulus sobbed with fright, and when Sirius reached him, he pulled Regulus into his arms and let him cling to him.

Severus stared at the goblin as his mouth worked desperately to form words. Luckily, Sirius still had control over his tongue.

“What the hell?” he cursed, “What the hell was that? Shit, shit, shit.”

The thing – Lily must have heard wrong, it couldn’t be Kreacher – tried to get close to Regulus again, but Sirius shielded his brother from it, taking a few stumbling steps backward. Severus continued to stare blankly as if its presence had broken his brain. It probably had; Severus believed firmly in science and little articulate goblin creatures didn’t exactly fit into his world view.

The red-haired girl answered him. “It’s a house-elf,” she explained as if expecting that would clear everything up. Lily didn’t care what kind of elf it was, it still didn’t make sense. “Kreacher,” she continued to the mixed expressions of blankness or horror. “A house-elf? Do you not know about…?”

“About house-elves?” Severus responded coolly, his voice taking on the clinical tone he used when dealing in matters of reality. “No, obviously not, because elves, let alone a domestic version, do not exist outside of fantasy. Therefore, this must be a delusion of mine for creatures that exist purely in fantasy do not simply leap into reality. Rather, biology and the like have designed the extent of species and an elf is not one such creature that evolution has selected for. No, rather-.”

“Severus,” Lily interrupted firmly because if Severus spiraled into a tangent, they would lose him for the rest of the day. Severus stopped abruptly. Kreacher started to hiss what felt like obscenities even though Lily couldn’t make any sense of it. Half-breed? Muggle-lover? What the hell was a Muggle?

“Kreacher?” Regulus squeaked out, staring wide-eyed at the red-head. “As in-?” The goblin –  _ house elf  _ – let out another string of adorations for a now queasy Regulus. “I’m sorry, but  _ what? _ Kreacher is – he’s not – holy fucking shit.”

“You know him?” the brown-haired girl asked. 

“He’s…I mean he’s not this.” Regulus gestured towards the house elf in stunned disbelief. “He’s someone I hack with. I mean, he’s…I met him on the dark web, and he helps me with code. Not like…whatever the hell this is.” He stared at the Kreacher thing for another moment before rounding on Remus. “Moony, what the fuck did you give us?”

Remus, who had hovered near the door silently, rubbed at the back of his neck. “Thought it was ecstasy. Nothing crazy, nothing that would cause,” he gestured out to the kitchen. “Seriously, Reg, if I knew what had caused this, I would tell you. And you know we can’t share hallucinations like this. Which means either one of us is in some coma or…this is real. This has got to be real.”

“Then how the hell do you explain it?” Regulus demanded. Lily nodded her approval at his question. She needed an answer – something to quiet the insipid dread in her stomach.

“I might-,” the older Remus said, raising a hand to interrupt. Lily had a hard time looking at him – like Severus, he just seemed so  _ tired.  _

Her Remus turned to him. “Actually, yeah right? You should know. What happened to us?”

“Severus said we were misplaced in time,” Lily offered as the older Remus continued to look distressed. The older Severus stared at a spot on the table, eyes cold and blank.

“Misplaced in time?” her Severus asked, eyes narrowing in thought. “Like  _ Back to the Future _ ? Should we…but if it’s true, it’s incredibly serious, and we all need to leave immediately. Lily, we need to go.”

Lily looked at him confused, unsettled at the urgency in his voice. He seemed panicked, and it frightened her.

“Shit, the butterfly effect,” Sirius explained since no one seemed to really understand what was going on. “Or something…it’s the idea that knowing our futures will irreparably change  _ our  _ futures. As in all of this will cease to exist. Or we’ll split off into a parallel universe. So the fact is, Sev, it’s too late.”

“It’s not,” Severus began to protest, but Sirius shook his head.

“Look at us. Look at…Harry. Look at how we…we know, Severus. Or if we don’t know, we suspect. And if we suspect, we’ll begin to do things differently.”

“Sirius…”

“It’s alright, though,” Sirius said after a moment, gray eyes scanning the room.

“Alright?” Regulus forced out, “Sirius, what the-?”

“It’s okay, Reggie. We’re together. Everyone that matters, really. So even if we…it’s not like one of us was split off. Or like we couldn’t find you or Lily. Then…no, we’re okay, even with all this.”

The older Sirius grunted. “You have to go back, right? You can’t cease to exist in our timeline? Or else I stop…”

Sirius nodded and bit at his lip. “Yeah, we do at some point. I’m trying to think…I’ve read a lot of sci-fi, so I feel like I should know…but it’s not like I’ve ever lived through something like this before. And you don’t ever remember this happening?”

The other Sirius shook his head. “I would remember if it did.” He paused, “Unless I forgot, huh? Oblivated before I was sent back? But I wouldn’t… I wouldn’t have allowed…”

He broke off, looking distressed. Lily worried at his expression. The way he spoke, the way they looked at James – she felt a spike of fear for her boyfriend.

James must have felt the same because even though he tried to ease the situation, he couldn’t completely mask his worry. “Pad’s right, we’re all together. Even if…” he looked at the older Sirius and glanced away quickly. “We haven’t lost anyone. No one’s hurt. It’s…it could be a lot worse.”

Lily nodded. “When Reg and I woke up, we thought we had been kidnapped. Or something terrible.”

“I thought they were going to harvest my organs! I  _ need _ my fingers!”

Sirius scoffed. “No one wants your fingers, Reggie.” Regulus shot him a look and crossed his arms.

“I’ll let you know my fingers are very nice.” Sirius rolled his eyes and fought a smile.

“Sure, Reggie. Now, Remus? Do you…do you remember this? Or?”

The older Remus shook his head, leaning heavily against the wall. “No, I don’t. And I’m not sure what would have caused it. You said all of you had visited London?”

Lily nodded in affirmation. Remus thought for a moment.

“Sirius, we were all in London together for a summer after Hogwarts. Do you remember that? That might have been…”

Sirius frowned. “No, not Snape. And not Regulus either. Why the hell would they be here?”

The younger Sirius glanced between the two men, confusion written across his face. “Why…why wouldn’t they be here? With us?”

Sirius snorted harshly. “Snape? Seriously? Besides the fact that he’s a greasy git, and we’ve hated him for years?” The older Severus glowered into the corner of the room, and Lily watched him, deeply concerned at Sirius’s words.

Sirius shifted closer to the Severus, who had paled considerably. “I…well, yes. Because as far as I know, I love Severus. For now at least…” he added faintly, shifting his weight. Severus started distantly in front of him, back rigid. Sirius reached out to hold his hand, and Lily watched as their fingers intertwined.

The older Severus spun to face them, clearly shocked despite his attempts to hide it. The older Sirius started to laugh harshly until he realized his younger version had not made a joke. The room fell violently quiet.

“Black, you must be joking,” the older Severus snarled off-kilter. “You must -.”

Sirius shook his head and thought for a long moment. “We were never lovers?” he asked hesitantly, expression turning somber.

“No,” Severus responded, aghast at the idea. “I avoid mutts when I can,” he hissed, anger filtering through. “I don’t want to catch fleas.”

Sirius looked like someone had slapped him, and he swallowed with some difficulty. “So it never…it wasn’t even once? When you were young?”

The older Sirius’s harsh, disgusted grunt answered the question.

“Fuck,” Sirius cursed quietly. “Okay, then.” He paused and shifted closer to Severus. “Well, then.” He closed his eyes and thought. “Then maybe we weren’t-,” he broke off. Lily noticed the tension radiating off Severus, shoulders tight and back rigid. “Maybe we weren’t – maybe we weren’t misplaced in time.”

“But-,” Lily protested because nothing else made any sense. How else would she have a fifteen-year-old son?

Sirius cut her off. “Not time travel.”

Regulus gasped in dawning realization. “Fuck,” he groaned. “Are we in a multiverse?” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~ The gang's all together ~ 
> 
> I think the one part where Kreacher assaults Regulus is one of my favorite things I've written - poor kid, he's gonna get trauma out of this. 
> 
> Otherwise, I really hope you enjoyed it and that wait was worth it. The update speed will remain sporadic and relatively slow - however, I am posting other stories if you need something to fill the gaps. 
> 
> Thank you!

**Author's Note:**

> Love Stuck Summary: 
> 
> Loosely based on my own university experiences, this story focuses on the Marauder era in an American college. Lily and Severus are close friends as they never had a reason to stop. James, Remus, Sirius, and Peter are all fraternity brothers, with about one brain cell to share between the four of them. 
> 
> Lily starts to date James, she starts bringing Severus, and after several months of pining, bad communication, and misunderstanding, he and Sirius fall in love. Peter betrays them to Bellatrix (who Sirius had been dating) who enlists Lucius Malfoy to blackmail Severus to end the relationship. Some more angst until Lily finds out and forces Severus to come clean. They turn to Regulus for help as he is a computer science geek and quite happy to hack for a good cause (Kreacher is his dark web friend). They end up blackmailing Tom Riddle, the controversial political science professor, who had also been having an affair with Bellatrix to use his influence to stop her.
> 
> From there, they all live happily ever after, except of course, for this story. 
> 
> This story is intended to be fun, especially in the beginning. If it makes you laugh at any point, I'll consider it a success.


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